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Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Assault Squad

Here is the first look at the assault squad I finished a few weeks ago. I was really pleased with how the minis turned out, and the colors meshed well for a great paint scheme, even though some of it was unintentional. I got this paint scheme from another blog that has sadly dropped out of service, but the Gehenna's Gold was a copper color by the end, and I was looking for a brighter gold when I started. However, the copper color looks great with the deeper red, especially after the Agrax Earthshade wash.

I started with a Chaos Black undercoat which I spray painted using the Games Workshop spray paint. Everything was primed black, legs, torso, jump packs and weapons. Next I did two coats of Khorne Red over the armor, leaving the harness, recesses, and webbing black. I found I had to do two coats to get an even color all around. The second coat adds time, but it's worth it.

Next came the Agrax Earthshade wash, which really made the models in my opinion. The wash significantly darkened the red to give a distinct look, as well as adding that extra detail and weathered look of armor suits that have been worn in the field.

In this picture you can see the black wash around the knee caps, in the grooves of the armor, and between the Marines' fingers, which is important so their hands don't turn into massive blobs of color.

You can also see I painted the edges gold around the front intakes of the jump packs, just above the shoulders. I could have left them red, but the gold tied in the paint scheme a little more and added detail to the model. I did the same with the rims of exhaust fans here.

I left the wash coat as is, no clean up afterward. As you can tell I did a decent amount of detail work on the chest pieces and helmets. These steps take time, but patience is necessary to get a good looking mini. Also, don't be too tired to go back and fix mistakes. At times I got paint where I wasn't suppose to, which is OK, everyone makes mistakes here and there, but if you are willing to go back and fix those mistakes, the minis will come out still looking good. Mistakes look bad on the tabletop, always go back and correct them.

The chapter insignia comes straight from the codex. I created a stencil for the logo and had to paint it in a time consuming two step process, but the results were well worth it. The stencils deteriorate over time, so now I just tape the symbols and spray paint, which is slightly more troublesome, but I can still get good results. Staying away from the First Founding chapters means you can get unique insignia like Genesis. Having a painted finish for the chapter symbol adds so much to the model, and I recommend doing the same for your own models.

Another extra step that will make your models stand out is drilling the bolter hole with a pinning drill. Games Workshop sells one relatively cheap, and it works great. I will have later posts with a step-by-step process. A clean bolter hole does a lot for the mini.

This is just a quick overview of the general look and design of the assault squad. With later models I will have step-by-step guides and photographs of each stage so you can follow along. You can click on any of the pictures to see an enlarged view of the image.